Long Time Gone

Hannah Martian

October 15, 2024

Crooked Lane Books

Long Time Gone by Hannah Martian is her debut novel. It delves with rural American, having the setting influence the story. 

The idea for the story came about when “during summer 2021 I was working in Wyoming.  Being there the setting inspired the story. One of the characters, Hunter, was inspired by the culture and people I met. Wyoming is isolated.  When I was in Casper, I considered it a very small town even though there were 50,000 people living there. I was called a big city girl.  This spurred my interest in the different dynamics between the city and those living in a small town.” 

Quinn Cuthridge came back to the small town of Wonderland, Wyoming after her aunt disappeared. When she gets an unexpected call from her aunt’s ranch hand, Hunter, Quinn learns that her aunt has gone missing. Reluctantly, she returns to Wyoming to investigate and soon realizes that her aunt was getting dangerously close to long-buried Wonderland secrets, including who really murdered Jessica Coldwater.

Living in Spokane by herself since she was 16, Quinn had been basically abandoned by an uncaring mother and her Aunt Cora unceremoniously told her nearly eight years ago that she wasn’t welcome in Cora’s home anymore. She’s been apprenticing with a private investigator, acting as her assistant so she’s got some chops now even though she’s only 22.  Hunter is already life weary even though she’s just 21. Cora is not just her boss, she is the only person that Hunter trusts so in desperation, she contacted Quinn.

“Hunter is very reserved, cautious, and someone who has experienced a lot of traumas in her life.  She has relied on Cora, the person who has gone missing. She is not a trusting person. She does not like Quinn because Cora and Quinn have been estranged for eight years. Hunter idolizes Quinn and, in her eyes, Quinn has done Cora wrong. But then she sees there are two sides to the story.”

The relationship between the two begins with animosity but begins to grow close as friends and then something more. Although Quinn is suspicious of Hunter’s chumminess with local Sheriff Maddie Bridgers, who comes from the town’s high-powered Coldwater family. Suspense builds along with the rising tension between the women.

“Quinn is Hunter’s opposite.  She is loud, passionate, and is not afraid to openly express her feelings. She has a lot of resentment toward her aunt and does not like Wyoming. In the beginning Quinn and Hunter were diametrically opposed but then they can find common ground and come together.”

“I see this as a love story between Quinn and Hunter, but is also a story about family, the one born into and the one we choose. Family plays a big role in the mystery.” 

There is suspense, romance, and the understanding of a small town.

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